1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vacuum operated fruit harvesting machines. More particularly, this invention relates to picker heads, airflow control valves, and discharge valves of fruit harvesting machines and further relates to a transport for transporting the fruit harvesting machine between adjacent rows of fruit trees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently there exist many types of vacuum operated fruit harvesting machines designed to harvest fruit from fruit trees. One such type of vacuum operated fruit harvesting machine comprises a picker head which is connected in fluid communication with a vacuum source by sections of rigid or flexible conduits. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,545,072, 3,473,312, and 3,664,104 illustrate such types of fruit harvesting machines. The primary disadvantage of these types of fruit harvesting machines is the fact that a large amount of vacuum is required to pull the fruit from their stems.
Other types of fruit harvesting machines have been developed to reduce the amount of vacuum required to separate the fruit from the stem. Specifically, these types of fruit harvesting machines are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,711,625, 3,538,695, 3,591,949, 3,756,001, and 3,898,785, and typically comprise some type of twisting mechanism which operates to twist the fruit as the fruit is conducted into the conduits by the vacuum source. Unfortunately, the twister heads usually comprise complex mechanisms which increase the cost and the reliability of the fruit harvesting machines when operating in working conditions. Moreover, the twister heads tend to be substantially heavy thereby causing great fatigue to the operators harvesting the fruit. For these reason, twister heads have not been widely accepted in the trade.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the fruit harvesting machine art.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine including a lightweight picker head which easily separates the fruit from the stem without the need of a great amount of vacuum supplied to the picker head.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine where the picker head comprises no moving parts which add to the weight and complexity thereof and which may fail under working conditions.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine including an airflow control valve for reducing the airflow through the picker head while a fruit is not actually being picked.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine wherein the airflow control valve reduces the airflow through the picker head thereby conserving energy and maintaining maximum pressure differential capacity at the picker head.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine including an airflow control valve which avoids drawing unwanted leaves, branches and debris into the picker head.
Another object of this invention is to provide a discharge valve which operatively connects the vacuum source relative to the picker head enabling the harvested fruit to be discharged into a storage area while minimizing the amount of flow back air flowing to the vacuum source as the fruit are discharged.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine including a mobile transport for transporting the various components of the fruit harvesting machines.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fruit harvesting machine wherein the mobile transport is designed to travel between adjacent rows of fruit trees enabling the operators to conveniently manipulate the conduits of the fruit harvesting machine to pick the fruit from the trees.
Another object of this invention is to provide a gate valve apparatus for assisting the transportation of fruit in which the fruit obturates an intake chamber thereby causing air to flow through a cavity which houses an impeller such that movement of the impeller caused by the passage of air therepast moves the gate valve from a second to a first position thereof for permitting transportation of the fruit from the intake to the output chamber of the piker head.
Another object of this invention is to provide a gate valve apparatus including an elastic braking membrane which extends across the output chamber and is disposed between the gate and the source of partial vacuum for momentarily impeding the transportion of the fruit such that air flows back through the impeller for assisting movement of the gate means from the first towards the second or closed position thereof.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more pertinent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had be referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.